Abstract
Breakfast has been shown to be beneficial for cognitive and academic performance in school children. However, there is a paucity of studies which examine the relationship between breakfast consumption and academic performance and a complete absence of studies in UK school children. The aim of this study, therefore, was to examine the association between habitual breakfast consumption frequency and Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) performance, a reasoning test routinely used in UK schools. Adolescents aged 11–13 years (n = 292; males: 53.8%) completed a questionnaire to report usual weekly breakfast intake frequency. Breakfast was subjectively defined by the participants. Habitual weekly breakfast consumption frequency was categorized as rare (0–2 days), occasional (3–4 days), or frequent (5–7 days). Participants’ CAT performance was used as a proxy measure of academic performance. The CAT has three components: verbal, non-verbal, and quantitative reasoning. Normative standard age scores (SAS) for verbal, non-verbal, quantitative reasoning, and overall mean SAS were obtained from school records and hierarchical linear regression models were applied, adjusting for the confounders: gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, English as an Additional Language, and body mass index. Habitual breakfast consumption frequency did not significantly predict any CAT SAS in all models (crude and adjusted). However, methodological considerations which could account for this disagreement with previous research, were identified. These included the isolation of school-day breakfast consumption, use of a standard definition of breakfast, and measurement of actual academic performance. The findings of the current study suggest more comprehensive ways in which future studies might investigate the relationship between habitual breakfast consumption and academic performance.
Highlights
There has been widespread research interest in the possibility that breakfast can influence learning in children and adolescents
Together with the lack of association found in the current study, this suggests that caution should be exercised when interpreting the positive associations between breakfast consumption and academic performance reported in previous work
The present study provided no evidence that habitual breakfast consumption was associated with a proxy measure of academic performance in the sample of 11- to 13-year-old adolescents studied
Summary
There has been widespread research interest in the possibility that breakfast can influence learning in children and adolescents. In a systematic research review, Hoyland et al [1] reviewed 45 studies examining the effects of breakfast on children’s and adolescents’ cognitive performance. This evidence was somewhat mixed, breakfast consumption appeared to have a positive acute effect on cognitive. More recent evidence supports the short-term beneficial effect of breakfast on cognitive function in children and adolescents [2,3,4]. Breakfast consumption has the potential to affect cognitive processes in school children, which may benefit learning and academic performance. Breakfast is frequently skipped by children and adolescents aged ≥11 years [5]
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